What is new in Beta 5?

This is the first beta to run on real hardware! I am currently running Punix on my TI-92+. It's still highly incomplete, but the hardware drivers have been proven to work correctly on the Real Thing. As a real calculator has limited power (batteries), this release now supports power-off with the key combinations 2nd-ON or Diamond-ON.

This beta also includes a short clip from The Blue Danube Waltz (to demonstrate the audio capabilities) as well as preliminary grayscale support. The console font has been anti-aliased to take advantage of this new grayscale support.

For those who are interested in running this release on their own calculator, here are some quick installation instructions. First make sure that you have a GraphLink cable (or a homemade variant) and TiLP installed on your computer. TI-Connect might work as an alternative to TiLP, but I've never used it so I can't say whether it works.

Start TiLP and navigate to the directory that contains the .9xu/.89u file.

Pull out one of the calculator's batteries.

Reinsert the battery while holding the APPS key until the bootloader screen appears (It will say "Press I to install product code...").

Press "I". The bootloader should say "Waiting to receive..."

In TiLP, drag the appropriate .xxu file from the computer side to the calculator side. If you have a TI-92+, drag the .9xu file. If you have a TI-89, drag the .89u file. (Sorry, only these calculators are supported currently.)

Wait for the transfer to complete. This should take a couple minutes.

Punix will automatically boot after installation.

If the transfer fails, you may have to repeat step 5, or possibly steps 2 through 5.

Please be aware that Punix does not have an "Auto Power Down" (APD) feature yet, so you will have to power down the calculator with 2nd-ON when it is not in use.

Hi Thomas, I would say currently the grayscale is the most problematic issue with running it on HW1. It seems to run ok in TiEmu as HW1 if I disable grayscale. I either need to write a grayscale driver for HW1.

The other big issue is with the clock. The oscillator 2 (OSC2) runs about 15% faster (at least in TiEmu) in HW1 than in HW2. OSC2 controls all of the timers on the calculator. This isn't a huge problem, though, as it just means that anything that depends on timers or the system clock will run a bit too fast.

About Punix

Punix is a Unix-like operating system for the Motorola M68000-based TI graphing calculators, starting with the TI-92+. It is currently under development and is not ready for widespread use yet. So far the kernel is being written, and user-space utilities and applications will follow. Here are some of the key features that the kernel supports: